TCU Professor Dr. Danielle Lansing, a faculty member in Early Childhood Education at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), a tribal college and university (TCU) participant in the American Indian College Fund’s Wakanyeja “Sacred Little Ones” early childhood initiative.
The fellowship’s goal is to promote environmental sustainability in tribal communities that leads to systemic change. The research component of the fellowship is designed to create research projects that are meaningful and relevant to the students’ tribal communities by improving community environments and the health of tribal people. By educating tribal communities about environmental issues and working together as a community, tribal communities can build and utilize better land and resource management systems.
A new guide for educators titled Teacher Education Across Minority-Serving Institutions: Programs, Policies, and Social Justice, edited by Emery Petchauuer and Lynnette Mawhinney (Rutgers University Press, 2017) shares successful teaching practices and teacher education programs from minority-serving institutions (MSIs) across the country.
A higher education is a tool for a better life. But for education to also be a portal for social change in Native communities, a one-size-fits-all approach is not sufficient. A new guide for educators titled Teacher Education Across Minority-Serving Institutions: Programs, Policies, and Social Justice, edited by Emery Petchauuer and Lynnette Mawhinney (Rutgers University Press, 2017) shares successful teaching practices and teacher education programs from minority-serving institutions (MSIs) across the country.
Dr. Cynthia Lindquist, Ta’Sunka Wicahipi Win (Star Horse Woman), President of Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota, is a contributing author to a book titled Overcoming Educational Racism in the Community College: Creating Pathways to Success for Minority and Impoverished Student Populations, edited by Angela Long and published by Stylus Publishing LLC, 2016.
Deborah His Horse is Thunder has worked for the tribal colleges and universities for more than 25 years and currently serves as the American Indian Higher Education Consortium NARCH Project Director in addition to her work with individual colleges. She is Nakoda and lives on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation with her husband, Ron.
Sunny is a student at Leech Lake Tribal College in Red Lake, Minnesota. Through the help of the American Indian College Fund’s Native Pathways to College Transfer Program, she was able to travel to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota for a campus visit.
Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, Co-Director of the American Indian College Fund’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and Senior Program Officer of Tribal College and University Early Childhood Education Initiatives, shared that cell phones are no longer merely communications devices, but are tools to access and exchange multiple sources of information. Parents must consider these factors while strategically monitoring and guiding children’s use of these tools.
The American Indian College Fund supports four tribal colleges in work to strengthen Native early childhood education under the Restorative Teachings Initiative. Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) is one of four 2016-17 TCU grantees implementing programming to increase access to health and wellness and securing Native families.
